David contributed more to this forum than he ever received.
How are you calculating this assertion?
Partly on the back of
my first order of an AS-2000 turntable David built an entire turntable business. David received a great deal from this forum, including actual business.
And the owners realized this
This characterization is false and misleading. You never asked me why I, for one, invited David back, so this is merely an assumption on your part.
In addition to using WBF to help cultivate a successful business, David, like each of us, enjoyed WBF as a regular member in terms of making friends and participating in dialogue.
David was not invited back because "he contributed more to this forum than he ever received." I never made any such calculation. It never even occurred to me to think this way.
I invited him back myself several times because he has incredible high-end audio experience in general; vast expertise in vintage components in particular; he's one of the leading turntable experts in the world; he's probably the world's single leading authority on the SME 3012 tonearm; and -- most of all -- because I knew how much he enjoyed his participation here.
They understood the value of his contributions.
David was a very prominent member, one of the members I personally thought of as a senior member. We have a number of prominent members I personally think of as senior members. These are people who enjoyed the website before I discovered it in 2015.
I personally would welcome back any member -- but especially a senior member -- who enjoyed WBF but chose to leave as a result of some controversy, drama or misunderstanding. Via telephone voicemail messages and emails and third-party back-channel requests I invited Bill back around 10 times.